Expensive preservation
by aorslover504
Summary: 12 years after the freeman unit and the smokies saved the world from the bubbleheads they are back! this time nature itself is at risk when a new group of people who call themselves the "future seekers" want to destroy the planet and all the live on it, thinking that earth should be put out of its misery. can Megan help save the world or die trying?
1. reunion

Expensive preservation

**For those who have been following me will remember expensive beauty, the fanfic for uglies by Scott westerfield. I thought since it was so popular I would write a sequel to it. I welcome to you the characters of expensive beauty as they join together years later to once again save the world from human oppression. **

I watched my children playing in the yard before me. At the age of thirty I was pleased with what I was seeing. My beautiful son croy who at the age of seven was everything my best friend had been. Sensitive and adventurous he acted just like him. Shiloh was three and she was just like fuasto, her long red hair was the only thing she had that resembled me. Croy had reddish brown hair and his eyes where so bright and green that sometimes I thought they would start glowing.

Croy ran around screaming like a lunatic in the yard. Shiloh waddled around and tripped into the grass. She shrieked out crying, croy stopped and turned around. Croy looked at Shiloh and started crying to "I didn't mean to!" he cried as he came running to fuasto. Fuasto burst out laughing and I stood up rolling my eyes. I bent down and scooped Shiloh up "shush now, you have to be tough like a smokie" I cooed at her. "A smokie like momma and daddy!" croy asked through tears.

"No like mama, daddy is a scary cutter" fuasto tickled croy. "You're not scary!" Shiloh piped up. "No but you are!" I set Shiloh down and threw my arms up over my head as if I was frightened. "No mama!" Shiloh cried as she bounced around and put her chubby arms over her head. "Yes Shiloh!" I scooped her up and spun around with her. "Mama I'm hungry" croy announced. "Well good news for you kiddo! It's time to go to Maddie's" fuasto readjusted croy in his arms and we turned and walked inside.

After we strapped the kids into the back seat of our land car I turned around and looked at fuasto. "Hello" he said brushing my hair out of my face. "Hi" I leaned in to kiss him. "Ok I'm grossed out" someone said. I turned around and looked up to see David perched into our tree. "What the fuck? David!" fuasto shouted. "DADDY SAID A BAD WORD!" croy shouted. David jumped down from his branch and embraced us. "Where is tally and Zane?" I asked. "At Maddie's I thought I'd hitch a ride with yall!" David said as he slid into the land car. "So you hover boarded all the way over just to sit in a land car?" I asked. "Yup" David replied.

Fuasto looked at me and we exchanged a wondering look. Fuasto just shrugged and got into the car. David filled us in on the recent ventures as we rode on. Fuasto kept looking in the mirror at him and looking at me. I put my hand over his and squeezed it. When we arrived at Maddie's we were shocked. Everyone was there, the whole crew. The kids ran past us and tackled Zane. Over the howling children we all said our hello's and hugged everyone. As we sat down to dinner fuasto was sending strong mental messages. Why was the whole group here? Why where David and tally here? They never came out of the woods unless it was for a one day visit. They rarely visited to; they had just come two months ago.

Also the whole group didn't hang out like this since a year after the invasion. All of the cutters and the freeman unit where here. Finally when dinner was over and the dishes where cleared and we all were sitting outside in the back did I say something. "Ok so what's going on, we never get together like this" I set my drink down and leaned forward. Maddie sighed and nodded "yea something is going on, I think David and tally should share though" I looked at tally and she took David's hand.

"Well as you guys may know David and I have been working on preserving the wild and making sure that after the mind rain people didn't start destroying the world again. Well recently in South America they have started mining for metals. This project is big, we thought we could handle it ourselves but we can't" tally explained. "No" fuasto said instantly. "Why! Come on fuasto everyone else is on board except you, Megan, and Skyler! We need the help!" David snapped. "Because we have a life beyond the rebellion now! The rebellion is over! We got what we wanted! We have children tally!" I said as I pointed to Shiloh and croy.

"We have a kid to! Listen it's gotten so dangerous that when we leave Zane is staying with Maddie! We really need all the help we can get! We need our tech guy, we need our escape guy, and we need our defense girl! I know you have been working on new inventions" tally said looking right at me. "Yea hover rigs for recreation! I haven't built a weapon since the smokie days! That's 12 fucking years tally!" I said throwing my hands up. "Megan our world is in danger again" shay said softly. "Something I know you guys can handle" I replied crossing my arms.

"Who are you? The 16 year old Megan I knew would have jumped up at the idea of this" David said sitting back. "Well this is the thirty year old Megan speaking. I can't lose anyone else, I can't" I blurted out. "It's about croy and almost loosing Skyler isn't it? Megan if you don't come the chances are bigger that one of us will be lost. This isn't just a group of middle pretties doing this. They are bigger and stronger, these are specials Megan" I froze and felt my blood run cold. "Specials?" I managed. "Yes, someone had the bright idea of pulling cables work out from the ground and started remaking the specials. These guys are worse then the cutters" David explained. 

I looked around at the cutters and took in there wild features. There wolf eyes and sharp features, the flash tattoos that ran over their faces and arms. The raised scars on their forearms. "Worse?" fuasto asked as he mirrored my shock. "Yes worse, ten times worse" tally handed me a tablet that was glowing. I exhaled in complete shock when I saw the pictures. They had big black cat eyes, features so sharp there was nothing beautiful about them. They had razor sharp pointed teeth and curved nails. "What the fuck are these things?" Skyler asked. "They are like Megan except on the opposite end of the spectrum. Instead of being special but no harsh features they are special with nothing but harsh features" Maddie explained.

"That's what I would look like if they decided to make me scary?" I asked as I traced the features of my face with my fingers. I put the tablet down and hung my head in my lap. A soft hand went on my back and I looked up to see croy standing next to me. "Mommy are you going to save the world again?" he asked me seriously. I had never seen croy so serious before, he was light hearted and fun just like his namesakes had been. "What are the threats if they are unstopped?" I asked tally with my head still down. "We don't know yet, that's why we are planning a stealth mission into their headquarters. We thought at first they just wanted to harvest metals from the ground but then shay noted the specials, why would they need such people for a simple mining project? We think they are planning other things" tally explained.

I sighed and sat up and pulled croy into my lap. "Yes mommy is saving the world again" fuasto took my hand and then nodded "I'm in" he said. We all looked at Skyler "well shit, I guess I'm in if that's ok with Kathy" he said looking at his wife. She nodded with hesitation then looked up at everyone. "Are you sure he will be safe?" she asked. Kathy had met Skyler after the mind rain; she never had to go through the fear of him being hurt during the rebellion. Everyone was silent for a moment until I spoke "we can't promise anything Kathy, I wish we could though" then I reached out and wiped the tear out of her eye that was welling.

Kathy traced her finger over Skyler's burn scars on his face. "You were almost lost once, Skyler promise me you will be careful" she looked right into his eyes. I could see that they had a deep love. In a way I was jealous of Kathy. I was never afraid of losing fuasto. I couldn't otherwise we wouldn't have ever been able to accomplish the things we had. You have to be ready to die for your cause when it came to being a smokie, when it came to being a freeman, when it came to being a cutter.

I use to feel heartless for not caring about fuasto safety until one day I told fuasto this. He chuckled and took my hand "I take it as a compliment that means you think I can handle myself in a fight. I don't worry about you dying either. It's not because we don't care, it's because we know we are fighters and if we died it was for a good cause" fuasto then kissed me. "Well tomorrow let's meet at headquarters and start work" Maddie then dismissed the topic and we changed the subject.


	2. breifing

"You sure you want to do this?" Kathy asked skyler. Skyler smiled at her and squeezed her hand. "I'm sure I want to do this, my sister needs me. The world needs me" skyler pulled Kathy's hand to his lips and softly kissed it. "The world had your help once though" Kathy was looking almost devastated. "No, I came in during the ass end of everything. Megan and the rest did everything!" skyler said smiling at me. I rolled my eyes as we waited for the side walk to get us where we needed.

"Why didn't we take hover boards" fuasto groaned. "I don't know maybe because we are old and out of practice" tachs pointed out. "Speak for yourself" David said clapping him on the back. "We won't soon enough! Megan can bring back her special freeman unit work out!" fuasto seemed more excited then teasing. "We need to change the name! I'm not a freeman anymore" I pointed out. "No the name is staying the same" shay said. "You're not even in my unit!" I said giggling. "I'm not working with any unit besides the freeman unit!" shay said pointing her finger in my face.

"Why?" fuasto asked. "Because when they put this in the history books everyone will get confused" shay replied. "Hey fuasto are you in the cutters unit or you in the Freemans unit?" David asked. "Cutters of course" fuasto replied. "Come on guys it's our stop" David stepped off of the side walk. We made our way to city hall and found wardens standing guard. "No one may have entry unless they are on the list" a warden told us. "Names" he added. "No names" tally responded. "No entry" the warden stated.

I stepped forward and held my clearance card out. "I think your going to change your mind on that" I held it up. "This is four days expired no entry" the warden said. "Im fucking tired of this, move" shay then grabbed the mans hand and twisted his arm behind his back. Shay pushed the man into the moving side walk and proceeded to yank the door open. The door wouldn't open so shay sighed and looked at me. I rolled my eyes as the cutters and Freemans made a tight half circle around me. I knelt down and plugged a flash stick into the lock.

The cutters and Freeman's deflected blows as the door clicked open allowing us entry. I pocketed my flash stick and smiled "thanks for the help wardens! Good day" then we entered the building. By the time we got to the elevators alarms where going off. "Fuasto find out where the panic room is, skyler find me the fastest route to it" tally said. Maddie wouldn't know it was us, since we had special clearance our rings didn't show our identity or position. Fuasto being the best hacker in the city had made sure our skintenna feed was unable to be listened on.

"Panic room is on floor B six" fuasto said as his eye screen clicked off. "Best route is the service shoot" skyler said as his eye screen still flashed. Skyler stepped forward and we found the shoot. "Anyone have claustrophobia?" shay asked with a grin. "No but im sure we all have insanity" shay muttered. "Ok lets do this, say clear when your out of the shoot, remember its six B" then tally dove into the shoot. Clangs rattled the shoot and we heard a big clang then heard a struggle. "Clear" one after another we went into the shoot. When it was my turn I pulled my knees to my chest and cannon balled into the shoot.

Five doors later I threw my legs out and skidded to a halt. The door was open to the service shoot and a hand extended to me. "Clear" my feet planted the floor. Tachs and skyler joined us then skyler turned onto his toes and walked along the halls. Skyler randomly stopped then pointed to the wall. "Megan" he said nodding to me. I took my flash stick and plugged it into the crease in the tile that hid the key lock. It opened and we entered. "Hey maddie!" shay chimed happily as we joined her at a desk. "Thank god you're here someone made forced entry!" maddie used worry words but otherwise looked and sounded calm.

"Oh that's interesting! We just made forced entry and didn't see anyone!" fuasto smiled. "You guys can't ever do things legally can you?" maddie glared at us. "Well we decided to start practicing!" "the warden said our clearance cards where expired" skyler said as he tossed his in. "I forgot to tell you guys about that, we had a bug the other day so we had to reject everyone's clearance then reinstate it, since I have you guys on ghost clearance I completely forgot" maddie sighed, she looked exhausted. "Well obviously it wasn't a big problem" shay smiled.

"fuasto reinstate clearance while I start the debriefing" maddie sat down. We all pulled chairs out and sat around. "Eye screens up" as maddies flashed to life. "Connection made" the room told us. "Now, as you all know we have found a group of people that are bringing up great concern, remade specials who are protecting a mining project. We do not know the reason for these specials, nor do we know what they are mining for. We do not know who is funding this; we do not know who is controlling this. If it's a city or a single person.

"I would say it's a group of people from the same city" tally suggested. "Nah I think it's a mix match of people" shay replied. "They are from one city because every city has a specific style of pretty, the few pretties that are caught in this all have tell tale signs of similarity" tally made her point. "But then again the body language is all different" shay pointed out. "We can't get a good tell of body language just from these snap shots, we will have to get videos and study it" I pointed out.

]

"Ok so the mission is as follows. We need a sneak entry, as many video's and pictures as possible. We need a full technical break down of all technology and tools, weapons included. We need a better understanding of there resources and potential cause. Game plan is to be drawn up by my two leaders, tally and Megan. Your groups are your own groups but I expect you all to work together" maddie continued on. "Of course we can work together" tally said smiling at me. "We may have had our problems in the past but I think since we fought each other so well we can easily fight together" I replied.

"Good, this mission is top secret and the only ones who are to know are the ones in this room. Draw no attention to yourselves until after we find out what's going on. We don't want anyone butting into our business" maddie sent us all files. "Good luck guys, the whole city is at your disposal, use what every resources you need. Megan your lab has been reopened and we have two lab assistances for you" maddie then got up and left.

We all sat in my lab arguing. "I think we need to use sneak suits" "no we need to use camo" "I think we should use hover rigs" "I think we all need to shut up" I ended the conversation. "The problem with hover rigs is they might disrupt the sneak suits camo mode, I can fix this easily. Another potential problem would be magnetic disrupters, fuasto can you fix this?" I asked. "Yea" fuasto replied. "Do you have any new cool weapons?" shay asked almost bouncing out of her chair. "I wish I could say yes but I have dedicated my skills to my hover rigs" I replied as I scanned through my files.

"Well do you have any super modded hover rig you never released to the public?" shay asked hopefully. "Of course" I tapped a file and it went to everyone's eye screens. "I thought you said you stopped making weapons!" David gasped. "Its not a weapon" I replied as I leaned back in my chair. "Not a weapon my ass!" shay exclaimed as her eye screens flashed madly. The hover rig came with many features, sneak mode, flash bullets, tech invisibility, solar panel for quick charge, cripple shock stick. It was the fastest suit I had ever designed to. "Jesus this thing looks like it could rip someone limb to limb if you even put one arm out of place!" skyler whispered.

"Unless you're a special, or properly trained" I waggled my eyebrows. "Megan I love you!" shay shut her eye screen off. "What about the Freemans?" skyler asked. "well out of all of the Freemans skyler, David, and I are the only three left, David is probably better off on a board, skyler is agile enough to pull it off, and its my rig so I know how to work it without any potential damage" I said shrugging. "You really thought this out! Why did you build it if you where so stuck on not wanting to fight anymore?" shay asked. "I have no idea, it just started like this" I shrugged.

"Well alls I can say is that this is perfect for the mission" David nodded. Everyone agreed. "Everyone remember to get as many pictures as possible, including anything that looks like a defense or offensive weapon" I reminded everyone. "We got this" tally cheered. The doors to the lab opened and we all turned. Two middle pretties walked into the lab. "Can I help you?" I asked. The two pretties where shocked, they where male and female.

"uhm we are the lab assistances of this lab, we are looking for Megan" the girl said nervously. "Ah you two, excuse me guys I have to deal with this" I stood up and waved the two over. "My name is jer and this is Mandy" the man said offering his hand out. I ignored his hand and switched on the privacy guard. The room buzzed to life and the cutters and Freemans disappeared. "Whoa how did you do that?" Mandy asked. "Rules don't ask any questions, don't poke around. Your job is to assist me. You will not enter this lab unless I am here. You will remain in my sight at all times" I grabbed my tracker and took Mandy's arm.

I put the tracker up to her arm and the injector snapped onto her arm. "ow!" she was shocked. "You just received tracking nano's into your blood stream. You will be unable to remove these nano's unless I remove them. They will also prevent you access to the lab unless I am in this lab" I injected jer as I spoke. "Do you guys have skintenna?" I asked as I leaned back and crossed my arms.

They both nodded "fuasto link them to feed six and put the most advanced protection possible, also give me full control and access" I spoke out loud. My skintenna buzzed to life and I switched to feed six. "Ok guys that are all, go home and I will call you when I need you" I then turned around and let down the privacy blocker for myself. "Ok guys, lets all meet in my test lab tomorrow so we can start practicing with the hover rigs" I sat back down in my seat.


	3. advanced training

I was the first one at the testing lab in the morning. Before maddie had taken Diego over the mayor only provided me with a small lab. After trashing more then a few labs with my risky projects the mayor got tired of moving me around and finally granted me permission to use a section of the park for my projects. When maddie took over she gave me a bigger and more advanced lab and a big room to test my inventions in. I used it for hover rigs mainly.

Once I had my hover rigs out into the world I closed the lab down and stopped producing inventions. I let the new free minded pretties take over my project. Of course the pretties decided to continue with the sport I had created. No one decided to invent an advanced weapon out of it. I was the only person who had done that. Of course I was the one who had gone through a rebellion.

"Fuasto get jer and Mandy in the lab today in case we need clean up" I said looking at fuasto. Fuasto nodded and I heard the skintenna link blare to life. Fuasto and I where linked and we saw and heard everything the other did. Fuasto waggles his eyebrows when there apartment wall feed gave us insights. Mandy was sitting at her desk messing with some wires and jer was dead asleep. "WAKE UP AND GET TO THE LAB!" fuasto yelled. Mandy yelled and the wires electrocuted her. Jer shot up and fell off of his bed. I laughed and fuasto took over the apartment controls.

The fire alarm blared and the service bots flew into there rooms and started bumping into them. Mandy shrieked and jumped up and her eye screens flipped to life. Her feed submitted into my eye screens and I saw something familiar. "She is trying to override me" fuasto smirked. "Shut her down, jer has the right idea" I said sending fuasto his feed. Jer was already out of the door and on his way to the lab. Mandy yelled and kicked the serving tray. She left her room and we released our control and the service bots began fixing the mess we had created.

"Torturing the assistants?" skyler asked as he joined us in the hallway. "Of course I am!" I said smiling at skyler. "Why am I not surprised? Careful maddie might give you an earful" skyler linked his eye screen to the feed fuasto and I where on. We replayed the scene for him and he was laughing hard by the time jer and Mandy showed up. Skyler laughed even harder when he saw jer was still in his pajamas. "With all due respect, I know you're a big deal in the city Megan but could you please give us more respect?" Mandy asserted herself.

Fuasto and skyler looked at me awaiting my response. "Nope" then I opened the test lab and they followed me in. by the time everyone showed up I had the hover ball rigs set up and ready to go. "Ok so in order to not rip yourself apart is to put them on when you are not within magnetic range. Since this might be hard I have installed a magnet crasher. Your whole body must be in range of magnetic when the suit is activated. If you don't know how to use a hover ball rig then do yourself a favor and suit up with my practice rigs and don't fucking touch my babies" I explained as I passed helmets out.

"Now David I have something special for you, I think you might like this special mod just for you" I tossed him a helmet. "Now everyone push the big red button with your bare thumb, hold it down until the light flashes green" I pushed my button down. The button flashed white and a white grid encased my thumb. The light turned green and pinged. "Now put the helmet on and stay absolutely still, don't flinch or else it will hurt" I put my helmet on.

My helmet tightened to my head and my suit flew on to me and adjusted itself to my size. "Ok everyone's finger print is saved in the linked feed. Only one of us has access to these suits, it will not work or turn on for anyone else" everyone winced slightly as suit pieces flew around to there respective owners. "No way! This is fucking awesome!" David was making muscles in his suit. "Wait till we activate them" I then activated my suit. "Activation is easy, the menu is here and you simply hit this big green button. The weapons list and the defensive list are over here. Memorize each one and do me a favor and do not activate any thing until I say so during practice" I then activated the hover field.

"Ok guys we are in zero G mode, have fun" everyone lifted off of the ground. "Oh wait, jer, Mandy put these on" I tossed them both belts. "Hit the button on the clasp when they are on" I pushed skyler out of my way as he back stroked in front of me. "Whoa!" David's boots transformed. "No matter where your foot goes the board will reform to" I told David's. David didn't just float around like us; his suit only had magnets in a select few places. He had a sleek thin plank of hover board; it was aerodynamic and tracked his movements to properly catch his balance and weight.

"The suit has everything ours do, but the magnets are in different places and adjust to you better" I explained. "How come we can't have that!" shay complained. "Because David is better at hover boarding then any of us" I heard a buzz coming from fuasto's suit. "Sneak cam?" he asked as scales from his suit began to peel of and form. "Whoa this is cool!" the scales disappeared and soon our feed gave us a grid of cam feeds. "Fucking right!" fuasto got a close up of skyler's face. "What's a rebound shield?" shay asked as she clicked the function. "NO!" I yelled. Too late, shay flew back and we all flew back as well. The walls exploded in a few places as the sneak cams made impact.

Jer and Mandy flew back but bounced and hovered in little balls. "Oh my god is she ok?" Mandy asked as shay hung upside down. "I'm ok!" shay said as she fell to the ground and bounced up before making impact. "Ok I'm deactivating your weapons" I said as fuasto went and collected the sneak cams. "Sorry!" shay said with a guilty look. I rolled my eyes and activated the agility course. "Ok for now lets practice this shit" I snapped my rig into speed mode.

By the time we where finished practice today everyone was sore. "God damn I think that was worse then your fucking work out" fuasto complained. "Speaking of I have a new and improved work out, we meet tomorrow, I'm sending you guys the location now" everyone groaned "thanks fuasto" David said as he punched his arm. "ow! Tally!" fuasto complained. "I'm not his mom" tally said grinning. "Megan!" "Fight your own fights" I said sticking my tongue out.

High pitched screams filled the training gym and croy and Zane chased each other around. Shiloh was sitting on the ground playing with my wrenches. "Shiloh put those down and play with the dolls I got you!" I yelled over my shoulder. "NO I WANT TO PLAY WITH MOMMYS TOYS!" she yelled. "DON'T MAKE ME COME DOWN THERE!" I yelled back. "NO!" Shiloh yelled. I dropped the heavy chains I was hanging from the ceiling and turned around. "ow!" skyler complained as the chains hit him.

Skyler fell off of the hover platform and hit the safety net. Shiloh dropped the wrenches and got up and ran to her dolls. "That's what I thought little girl!" I smiled. "Megan!" skyler cried, "Sorry!" I lowered the platform and yanked skyler up. "Whoa this is heavy duty!" tally said as she entered the gym. I latched the last chain on and joined tally and David below. "I know I'm proud of this" I grinned. The course consisted of a first a thirty foot drop with multiple hand grabs to catch ourselves, then a holographic forest with many dangers, human and animal alike. At the end of the forest there where rusty ruins with more hidden dangers. Random patches where the magnets deactivated and reactivated.

There was a wall we had to climb up and the place with no floor with nothing but chains to use. Then a thin platform with metal swinging obstacles. Finally platforms that gave out after sitting on them for five seconds or more that randomly moved and stopped. "Prepare to hurt" I said as I waggled my eye brows. "Momma I want to play!" Zane cheered. "Me to!" croy bounced up and down. "Me to!" Shiloh echoed. "Nope! Mandy, jer get ready my little master minds" I stood on the platform. "Ok two at a time, when the alarm goes off the pain begins!" I pulled fuasto up. "Training field active" the room spoke.

A buzz came up as the holographic forest and rusty ruins popped to life. Animal noises filled the room and I heard an eerie breeze from a distance. "Challenge obstacles active" the room told us. The lights shut off and the kids screamed and giggled. The platform stopped rising and seconds passed. Our night vision goggles switched on and our sneak suits buzzed to life. The platform dropped from under us. I controlled my fall and grabbed onto a hand hold half way down. Fuasto grabbed one just below me. I looked around and found a clearing in the holographic forest.

I sent the image to fuasto and he locked in on it. He dropped down into the clearing first and I heard his feet make impact with the ground. I dropped down next and fuasto caught me. He set me down on the ground and we silently ran through the forest. Fuasto stopped and skidded a few feet as he ducked. Some massive animal was making its attack; I jumped over it and spun around as I skidded. I punched the animal in its head and it fell down with a horrid screech. Fuasto grabbed my arm and we split up in the trees. I heard a shout and I leapt into a tree and checked fuasto's feed.

He was battling three human forms. "Keep your position run ahead, I got this" fuasto was breathing heavily. I leapt from the tree and ducked and jumped over obstacles. Right as I saw the rusty ruins I heard footsteps crashing behind me. I knew it wasn't fuasto because I wouldn't have heard any footsteps. Something was about to tackle me from behind. I randomly changed direction and spun around and tackled the human figure. I beat it to the ground as four more leapt down. "Fuasto four to one" I put defense mode on my sneak suit and sparks rolled up my suit.

By the time fuasto made it to me I was already on in the rusty ruins. Our hover rigs activated and we shot through the ruins. Fuasto randomly dropped and I grabbed his arm, then I dropped. We rolled into tight balls and landed on the ground. Hover boarding figures began to chase us. We fluidly dodged in and out of the ruins and I ended up forcing three boards to crash. We made it to the wall and our suits deactivated and we switched our sneak suits to climb mode. We started climbing the wall at a fast pace. We then got to the chains. I jumped off the wall and grabbed the first chain, we both swung through it with ease.

Fuasto slipped and grabbed the chain at the last minuet. He cussed as he climbed back up the chain and swung again. We got to the thin platform and we ducked through it and jumped. A swinging metal pole hit my ankle and I hit the platform face first. I heard a crack as my nose broke and felt blood pour out. "FUCK!" I shouted as the pole swung back around. I grabbed the pole and it swept me off the platform. I fell and fuasto grabbed my ankle and lifted me back up.

I jumped past the last few hurtles and hopped quickly over the give away platforms. My ankle was on fire as I jumped from platform to platform. My ankle almost gave out and I fell off the platform. I grabbed it at the last minuet and right as it gave away fuasto grabbed me and pulled me up to another platform. We both jumped and landed on separate platforms. I jumped the last few platforms and hit the base. Fuasto hit base and the lights came on and the course paused. "Twenty minuets and forty five seconds" Mandy announced. "Ok guys now you have a time to beat!" I announced as the platform lowered to the ground.

"Mommy your hurt!" croy announced as he ran over. "Aunt Megan your fast!" Zane added. "My turn!" shay grabbed tachs and she jumped on the platform. Jer gave me medical attention from the observation booth and shay and tachs smashed through the course. Everyone made it through the course twice, tally and David got the shortest time of eighteen minuets and nine seconds. "I think that by far is the best test course I have ever seen" David exclaimed at jer sprayed fake skin of his cheek. "You can really get hurt in there!" tally added as she stood waiting with blood running down her arm.

"I think we will be ready in no time" David agreed nodding. We all walked down to the city park to sun ourselves and let the children play. I stretched out and laid half way on fuasto's chest with my feet tangled in shays. I closed my eyes and smelled fuasto. "Ah!" I heard a clunk and shot up to see tally batting at a hover cam. "Shit!" hover cams swarmed us and suddenly everyone in the park was giving us attention. "It's the smokies!" someone yelled. We where swarmed and reporters where yelling. We grabbed the kids and made a run for it. "Flash bombs?" shay yelled. "NO NOT WITH THE KIDS AROUND!" I yelled angrily.

We made it to my house and tachs ran and turned the news feed on. "Just moments ago the cutters and freeman unit was spotted in a local park, it has been years since they where all seen together in one place. It has been since the mind rain since tally Youngblood and David have even been spotted in a city. What is going on we ask? What is the reason they have rejoined forces? Is there a new threat? Lets hope that what ever it is, our faithful and brave smokie protectors will once again protect us" the reported said. I groaned "well we have lost some secrecy!" I groaned.

I sat down on the sofa and croy was bouncing around. "We are on the wall screen momma!" he was excited. "Fuck! the kids!" fuasto burst out. "That's right! News reporters will be all over them!" tally almost protectively held Zane. "We need someone we trust holding on to them" skyler said instantly. "I don't trust anyone" I snarled. "Kathy can take them, we can take them out of school and she can teach them from home" skyler said his face lighting up.

"They can't leave her house without one of us" I said glaring at the wall screen. "Ok that's perfectly fine, she will love this. She is good with kids" skyler smiled a little. "Ok starting tomorrow the kids go with Kathy, we are to secretly go to the lab" everyone nodded in agreement.


	4. Specialized training

"Watch out!" shay cried as a holographic figure flew towards me. I ducked and rolled before standing up, as I stood up my knee popped. "OW!" I cried and my knee buckled and I was down for the count. Three fake figures went down on me and the simulator shot me up and out of the field. Shay growled angrily and the simulator flashed and banged as shay fought through it. Jer helped me up and he was examining my knee by the time shay angrily busted into the simulator control room. "What the fuck was that Megan!" she demanded. "My knee gave out!" I grunted at Jer poked around.

"Gave out? How! You're internally a special!" shay gave me a glare. "No I had the reversal surgery" I explained. Shay gave me and evil glare then opened the door to the control room. "TALLY! MEGAN HAS SOMETHING TO TELL YOU!" shay yelled almost angrily. Tally appeared in the control room moments later. "What's up?" she asked. Shay pointed at me "tell her" shay said crossing her arms. "I reversed the surgery about ten years" I replied nervously. "You have been doing intensive training with regular pretty surge!" tally asked calmly. I nodded and scanned around trying to find fuasto. "WHY DID YOU NOT TELL US! WHAT IF YOUR KNEE WENT OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF BATTLE?" tally was yelling now.

"I didn't think of it till now! I lasted this long! I thought I could make it!" I was getting agitated now. "Megan you have to resurge if you want to be a part of this mission! I'm sorry! I know you're the brains behind this but we can't have you getting caught!" tally lowered her voice when she noted my agitation. "Is it possible?" I asked crossing my arms. Tally's eye screens flashed and she pinged Maddie. "Maddie, I need you to clear a specialization surgery for Megan!" tally paused to listen to Maddie. "Yea she just told us! Why didn't you mention anything!" tally sounded agitated now. "Ok! If she agrees we will have her there within an hour" tally cut her eye screens then looked right at me.

"What about David and Skyler?" I pointed out in spite. "David grew up in the wild, he has natural strength and Skyler had ranger surge so he is good to" tally responded. "Can't I just have ranger surge?" I asked. "No, you were created to be a beautiful special, your body is compatible for it already! It would mess you up even more if you got ranger mods" tally was serious.

"Megan are you in or are you out?" tally asked. I looked her in the eyes and saw her desperation. I looked over at Skyler and saw him going over maps with fuasto. Mandy was laughing and testing a rig with tachs. Jer was intensely looking at me. I thought about our kids then, the threat that these people could impose to them. I imagined my kids being hurt. I nodded with tears running down my eyes. "I will become special again on the inside, just for the safety of our children" tally nodded then left. Jer and shay helped me up and put me on a hover chair.

"Come on guys, we are going to get Megan specialized. Anyone else want to share any secrets?" tally added. Everyone shook their heads and I was brought to the hospital. Maddie waited for us and she quietly handed me a hospital gown. "Megan I'm sorry, this is for the best though" she said softly. "When I had it done I never thought I would be getting myself into another rebellion. This is another rebellion isn't it?" I asked. Maddie nodded "it looks like it" she replied.

"Whatever it takes. I have more to love now, I can't lose croy and Shiloh, and I can't lose them again" I whispered. "Again?" Maddie asked. "Never mind that came out wrong" I then dismissed it completely. Maddie held my hand has the medication over took my body. The last face I saw was the surgeons face.

The sirens of the course rang "new best" the computerized voice alerted everyone. "Damn you killed it!" fuasto was dancing around. I smiled "hell yea!" I cheered as I danced around. "How is she doing that?" I heard shay yell with frustration. "Because she made the course" David laughed. "Cheater!" tally yelled. "I think it's from her new special skills" Skyler made an emphasis on the special part of it. I agreed with Skyler. Ever since my procedure I felt a familiar comfort, a comfort I felt when I was younger. I felt younger, like I was still a smokie rebel and not a middle pretty who had two kids.

Now I knew how fuasto always had his energy. Fuasto put his arm around my waist as the platform we stood on rose through the air. "The hover car we are using for the mission is almost done, I'm using the same technology you used to put the rigs in stealth mode" fuasto sent me pictures through our skintenna feed. "That's cool, the final mod to the rigs are being finished right now" I sent him the blue prints of my most complicated hover rig ever. "This looks cool as hell! You're a fucking genius!" fuasto twirled me around and dipped me.

"Are you sure we can trust the new metal though? Like your positive aya is a good source?" I asked. "Yes, I met her personally remember" fuasto replied. "I thought you said she had all the wrong reasons for trying to investigate the moon people?" "yea but once she got what she wanted she invested herself into the right things, you should come with us to her city one day, you would be mega famous" fuasto waggled his eyebrows. "I'm already famous enough thank you" I rolled my eyes.

I giggled and we joined the rest who sat in the rafters of the lab. "Why are we up here? Are we bats?" David asked when I settled down. We all looked at David with our eyebrows raised, he knew too much about rustie animals. "I'm not even going to ask what a bat is" shay replied. "What the hell did they teach you guys in school?" David asked. "Things that mattered" I stuck my tongue out at him. "Well bats will matter soon enough" David replied waggling his eyebrows, the scar running through his eyebrow danced as he did so. The wall screen flickered on and we all looked down at it.

"Fuasto?" I asked him. "It's not me" he said as his eye screens flicked to life. "Jer! Mandy?" I asked. "Nope not us" Mandy yelled. "It's Maddie come on" fuasto jumped from the rafter and his rig kicked in as his fall slowed. "What are you guys doing?" Maddie demanded when we all grouped up. "Taking a beat out session after training" shay answered. "You guys have been training for three weeks now, it's time to go and find out what's going on in the wild" Maddie said sternly. "we plan on going this weekend, we have one more mod to the rigs Megan has to make and fuasto needs to get the cloaking on the hover car working" tally answered. "Ok, Skyler where are you at?" Maddie asked.

"David and I have mapped out multiple routes that give us the advantage with getting there and returning. We also have charted a place of interest that we want to stop at to check out" Skyler pulled the route map up. "What is this place?" Maddie asked as she zoomed in on the map. "It's a surprise for everyone, David wanted to stop" Skyler replied as he shared a grin with David. "Ok as long as it doesn't stop you guys for more than two days" Maddie looked a little peeved off.

"Don't worry mom it won't" David smiled. Maddie rolled her eyes "I'm getting to old for this" she muttered before the screen cut out. David laughed and then grabbed tally's hand. "We will be back in time for the unveiling of Megan's super awesome hover rig, we are going to get the special and bubble cure for Megan just in case" David then slipped out.

We all stood around the outskirts of the magnetic grid, everyone was looking around. "How come we are not in the lab for this?" Skyler asked. "Because you will see" I said smiling at him. Skyler sighed and crossed his arms impatiently. We all stood around in our hover rigs, everyone was waiting for me to sync the hover rigs to their new mod. "Ok guys, May I introduce the very first off grid hover rig" I activated the suit and began to hover. Everyone looked at me wide eyed. "How the fuck did you accomplish that!" tally demanded. "No lifting fans, no magnetics!" everyone noted the magnetic system was down and non-active.

"Well after people started going to the moon to live they found a special metal that is strong enough to reach the earth's core. Some girl named aya who said she knew you guys sent me a sample. She said that she heard good words about me and I use my inventions to help people. I added it in the other day. We now have complete freedom over the whole earth" everyone was now floating around. "The moon never had any metal!" David challenged. "They think an asteroid brought it in from deep space, they found it in craters" I explained.

"No one can get these rigs now that I have these features in them. So I put a risky mod in them with it. If someone tries to use your suit who is not in the system it will release Nano's and eat the suit before an anti-Nano is released and kills them" I pulled the data base up to show everyone our finger prints where in them. "Will the Nano's eat this new metal?" tally asked. "Yes I checked, they eat it pretty fast actually" I was going to do further experimenting to find out why. "So we are going to pretty much be the rulers of the world now that we have this?" shay asked with excitement. "Shut up shay" we all echoed each other.

We all laughed and went back to the city. As we returned I smiled, it was nice to feel a group connection again. Everyone was tight and close again. Except this time we were not fighting each other but we were fighting together. Except this time croy wasn't with us, Shiloh wasn't with us. I looked at Skyler and his burned face. Skyler had been close to not being here to see this, but he was risking his life again for the goodness of the world. We all where risking our lives again to help the world. Help the world from itself. I sighed and looked at fuasto, he sensed my anguish and switched us to our private feed.

"What's wrong my love?" he asked. His voice was comforting in my ear. "No one is willing to step up to the plate besides us, fuasto I don't think we are coming back one more time" I replied. "No we are not, I think we are back for good" fuasto agreed. "Are you ready for this? I mean are we ready to expose our children to this?" I asked. "Our children will be ok, we can help them develop their own skills and one day if they want they can continue our legacy" fuasto said softly. "Could you watch Shiloh risk her life for a world that is only thinking of their own wants and needs? Could you watch croy getting killed from someone's urge to control?" I asked.

Fuasto grabbed my hand and stopped us, he faced me and looked me right in my eyes. "If he does, then I would be so proud of him, I would be heartbroken but I would be proud of him. Croy would be proud of him to" fuasto released me and hovered away. I knew that the croy that would be proud would be the croy who was sleeping forever. I nodded and wiped the tears running down my face away. I now had a reason to fight again, and I would die fighting if needed.


	5. Traveling

The ground below my knees was warm, the air smelled nice, and the sun felt amazing on my back. "You ok Megan?" tally asked. "Ya, it's just I haven't been into the wild since the smokie days. I didn't realize I missed it so much" I replied as I felt the breeze slide through my hair. "I love the wild" tally joined me by the tree I knelt by. "Why are you kneeling?" tally asked once she was settled. "This is where we buried Shiloh" I replied. Tally put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. "You loved her a lot huh?" tally asked. I nodded "yea since the day I found her, croy and I fought over me keeping her" I was running my hands over the soft undergrowth.

"The undergrowth is thick and healthy, she is nourishing the earth, giving back to nature" put her hand on the ground. I nodded and fuasto walked up "you ready Megan?" he asked softly. I stood up and dropped the wild flowers I had in my hand on top of her grave. "Comfort croy for me" then I turned and followed the others into the hover car. "Ok guys time for an air trip!" Skyler sang as he took the feed over.

"Ok this is the route we are taking! We thought at first we should go around this patch of ocean but then we decided, hey since we have awesome new tech might as well go over it! So anyway, since this is a sensitive mission we will have to have someone ten klicks ahead and someone twenty klicks behind us. This is where we are taking our pit stop. All together it should take us two days to get to our spot and one day to get to our special pit stop" Skyler was highlighting the map as he spoke.

"Who wants to be first to lead the way?" Skyler asked as he looked around. "Thanks for volunteering Megan!" Skyler said after silence. "What! No way you dick!" I complained. Fuasto laughed "fuasto thanks for volunteering to take the rear!" Skyler then grabbed the controls of the hover car. I laughed as I opened the bay release and jumped out of the hover car. The rig ripped to life and I flew ahead of the car, fuasto flew in the opposite direction. "Damn Megan these are fast!" fuasto was obviously having fun with his rig at this point. "I remember when I first got to new pretty town and I hover boarded around, I noticed everyone was just going with the breeze. I thought it was a trend at first" the breeze in my hair made me feel alive.

"That's how I was, I floated with the breeze, to me it was more relaxing" fuasto replied. "Huh I never had that problem" Skyler piped up. "Ditto" David replied. Everyone burst out laughing and we ignored them. "But then tally tricked herself into curing herself, and I became bad ass and road right" fuasto cheered. I laughed and sighed and listened to everyone's chuckles to die down. "It's been a long road from then to now, who knew we would get married" fuasto laughed. I laughed this time "yea Bree and Ashley where prepping me for our first date" I smiled. "Skyler the wind is choppy up here" I added as I pushed my arms and legs together and dove through an air tunnel. "Thanks for the heads up sis" I flew on.

All day we flew nonstop, soon night fell. Right as it was dark we arrived to our pit stop. "Our stop should be up ahead" David popped up on the feed. I squinted and looked around then saw it, it was a small building huddled in the forest. "What? A city building?" I asked. "Welcome to the rusty animal preserve" we all groaned. "We are stopping because you want to get a hard on to skeletons of dead animals?" fuasto complained. "Wrong, these animals are very much alive!" David sounded smug. "What?" shay asked curiously. "Scientists found DNA of extinct animals and began researching them. To get better information on them for learning they have cloned a few of these animals and even mixed a few species together" David started with enthusiasm.

"Wait didn't the rusties almost mess up the planet by cross breeding species? Uh the orchids?" I exclaimed. "oh these are not to release in the wild. They raise them an observe them and collect data on them. They won't ever reproduce or be released!" David sounded like he was now begging us to stop. "Ok then, I'm coming back around for landing" I turned around and met the car. When we landed a group of new and middle pretties gathered. "Who are you and where do you come from?" a man asked carefully. "My name is tally and we are smokies. We are two divisions the cutters and the freeman's. I'm the leader of the cutters and this is Megan the leader of the freeman's" tally pointed at me. I waved awkwardly and watched everyone.

"Smokies? Cutters? Freemans? Listen I know it sounds dangerous what we are doing, but please we promise we will not disrupt the eco system in place at this time" everyone began to look nervous. "We know, I just wanted to stop by and see it for myself. My friends just happened to be with me when we flew over" David walked up to the leader and shook his hand with enthusiasm. "Just happened to be with you?" shay asked. "Just happened to be flying over?" Skyler raised his eyebrow. I imagined the conversation when David asked him to add this to the map. I also now assumed we were more than just a little out of the way. "Ha anyway! Mind if we spend the night and check the place out?" David asked as he brushed them off.

"Of course, we would be honored! Maybe you can tell us some of your travels!" the scientists looked excited now. "This oddly reminds me of when I was in Andrew's village" tally commented. "Except with proper hygiene" I commented. "I'm sure that's a good thing to! You're so funny Ms. Youngblood! Also thank you for noticing and complimenting my hygiene" the scientist smiled. "I wouldn't be too fast to appreciate either one of those comments" fuasto held his nose. "Anyway come on!" David shut us up and we went inside. We toured the facility and I saw some cool animals. I was shocked when I came face to face with a cat just like Shiloh.

"Wow she looks just like Shiloh!" I grinned and pointed at the bars of the cage. "Yes that is a mountain lion, very few of them still exist in America but it's rare. We were lucky enough to find her as a cub though! Sometimes mothers abandon their young if they are not strong enough to survive the litter mate or mates" davit was hanging onto every word the scientist was saying. "I had one! I found her in the woods!" I smiled and the scientist got closer to me. "What where her characteristics? Her behavior? Her bathroom habits?" the scientist was snapping his fingers at a hover cam to record me. "Uh?" I replied.

As we ate dinner with the scientists David was talking nonstop the whole time. Tally looked bored and shay kept kicking tachs under the table. Skyler was busy looking at a map on his eye screen the whole time we ate. Fuasto kept changing the subject every time one of the scientists asked me weird questions about Shiloh. The next morning we watched them do lab work. "So Megan you have a lab to I hear?" tony asked. Tony was the scientist who kept asking me questions about Shiloh. "Yea I have two labs actually. A construction lab and a test lab" I replied. "Both of Megan's labs are cooler then this" shay huffed. "Yea because everything could accidently hurt or kill you" fuasto laughed. "Some of these animals could be vicious if let loose into the wild, they are so tame because we are the only thing they know" tony glared at shay.

"Megan's lab has cool toys I can play with, and a computer I can play with" shay continued to be a brat. "I wanna go to work with mommy! Boohoo no fair! Uncle David can't have any fun" David snapped at shay. Shay rolled her eyes and ignored David. The scientists watched us as if we were animals as well, they watched our every move. They especially watched tally and David with interest. "Do I look like that all the time?" I asked fuasto and Skyler. "Yea when you're around machinery and anything that causes destruction. Your all silent and weird, these guys are talkative and weird" fuasto replied and Skyler nodded in agreement. Early afternoon we left, everyone waved us off and I took a break inside. Shay was ahead of us and David was behind us.

We drove on for hours then finally Skyler clapped his hands together in excitement. "Ok guys time to land, we have to walk the rest of the way" he said. Shay and David returned and we packed everything into packs. "Ok guys, let's do this" tally then led the way out into the jungle. We were no longer in the woods, we had entered the jungle hours ago. "Kind of reminds me of our adventure with the moon freaks" shay laughed as she skirted a spider web. "Kind of does a little, jungle is so different then the forest" fuasto swatted at flying bug. "Yea less things flying around and not so soggy" I avoided a dripping leaf. "At least we don't have to walk in it" tally reminded us as she pointed to the dangerous looking undergrowth.

"Yea that's a good point that makes me feel better" tachs commented. "Hold on guy's I'm going to go a few different ways and explore the area" Skyler broke off and kept going. "I think we should all split up" David nodded and took tally's hand. "Just a warning I'm taking over yalls eye screen cameras and snapping pictures obsessively" Skyler said as he floated off. "I'm stuck with her again?" tachs complained as fuasto and I floated off. "Careful by yourself Skyler" I whispered. "I'm fine don't worry" Skyler chuckled. "Maybe we should have added someone else to the group so you could have a partner for when we split up" fuasto teased. "Yea because I'm so alone and scared" Skyler said sarcastically.

I then heard a yell on the feed and heard Skyler crash to the jungle floor. "Skyler!" I shot off in his direction while everyone else followed behind. I crashed into the undergrowth as I grabbed ahold of Skyler's attacker. "Watch out!" I yelled as we went rolling into tally and shay. We all rolled a little more then collapsed in a heat. "Tally, why do your people always come from the sky?" the man I was holding down was a wild looking man, he also reeked. "Andrew! Your still out here?" tally asked as she pulled herself up. "Of course, you told me to keep an eye out" Andrew smiled proudly. "I didn't mean stalk the place the whole time! Has anyone seen you?" tally had her face in her hands.

"No I have been silent in the night" the man was puffing his chest out proudly. "You know this guy?" I asked as I sat up. "Yes this is Andrew, he is from the tribe cable kept as a pre-rusty experiment" fuasto explained. "You must be Megan and Skyler!" Andrew walked up to us and smiled. Andrew eagerly shook my hand and bowed "you create so many things, you are a creator! I am honored to meet you" the man's dirty finger nails stuck out like a sore thumb on my hands. "Ok then, the freak show just got smelly" Skyler laughed when Andrew finally released my hand. "It was a freak show from the start" I whispered to Skyler. Skyler laughed and fuasto tried to stop himself from laughing.

"You're the freak Megan" tally snapped. "Hey I'm a freak! I'm ok with this!" shay had a big grin on her face. "I'm pretty freaky" David waggled his eyebrows and nudged tally. "Am I a freak?" Andrew asked. I couldn't help myself, I laughed so hard my ribs hurt. Skyler was right with me, fuasto's face was red. David was clinging onto tally who looked agitated. Shay had her face in her hands and tachs was just standing and watching us with a blank face. "ok come on lets set up our base camp before we all break our ribs from laughing to hard" David wiped his eye and activated his hover rig.

"Andrew come on" fuasto held his hand out for Andrew. "We are flying?" Andrew looked excited. "Yup and it's probably not the safest thing to do, so hold on tight buddy. Take these" fuasto handed him crash bracelets. We all hovered off and Andrew was manically laughing. "Shush Andrew, we are on a stealth mission" tally reminded Andrew. Andrew nodded and went quiet but a big open mouth grin remained on his face. I noticed his teeth where yellow and brown, black on the tips in some places. They had plaque built up on them, a few where missing. I gagged and flew up and next to Skyler. "Check out the teeth on that animal" I jerked my head back.

Skyler looked at me then slowed down and glided back. He turned around and watched Andrew, he looked for about a minuet then returned. "Dude come on! Memories cannot be undone man! I am now forever living with that! What if I randomly think of that while I'm eating or drinking something?" Skyler looked mortified. I laughed "what are you 12?" tally snapped through the skintenna. "Ya on a scale of one to ten" I responded back instantly. "Burn" shay whispered. Tally ignored me and sped ahead. "Ok tally let me lead now, I need to look around and map it" Skyler rode ahead and we all started slowly drifting along. A hover cam madly snapped pictures while his eye cam snapped pictures.

We drifted along like this and the hover cam disappeared at one point while Skyler just hovered in the air lost in his eye screens. "Ok guys map of the general area is about to be sent" the hover cam returned and its light turned white as it sent its data to Skyler. Skyler then hovered a few minutes more then sent the map to us. "Ok to the south is a tiny clearing hidden by the canopy of this vicious mess they call a jungle. Perfect camp for now while I properly route out everything" Skyler hovered off. "ok so tomorrow we will go scope the camp out while you go off and do your dorky map thing, and Megan can do her dorky battle thing while we search" shay looked around.

"Yea we can do that" tally nodded. "Dorky?" Skyler and I both said at the same time. "You two are weird, I'm glad I'm an only child" shay crossed her arms. "But he has my back" I replied. "I have her back" Skyler echoed me. "Ok let's start setting up ok?" tally clapped her hands together and started digging through her bag. We set everything up and we chatted until the sun started coming up. We all passed out right as the sun was just sitting on the ground.


End file.
